Online Jobs For College Students
You know the story, because you and most of your friends are living it.
You are a college student and cash is hard to come by. In addition to going to class and juggling a busy social life (can’t forget your friends) you also have a part time job to help pay for some of your expenses. Sure the part time job doesn’t pay much more than minimum wage, but every dollar you make now is another dollar you don’t have to take out in student loans and pay back with interest 4+ years down the road. You would like to make a change and have heard about online jobs for college students from one of your friends, but you aren’t sure what you would do online to make money.
The traditional part time jobs for college students include such things as waiting tables, tutoring, writing notes and papers for others, research positions and even donating blood or plasma.
With all the other things on your plate getting to a job can be downright exhausting and can also cut into your study time. The good news is that in the 21st century you can use the internet to find online jobs for college students and make a decent wage in your spare time.
The additional upsides include the fact that you can do the jobs from the comfort of your own place and you have the flexibility of working whenever you want morning, evening or night. And once you get the hang of it the money online jobs bring in is as good as or better (sometimes significantly) than what you would make at a traditional college part time job.
What are Your Options to Earn Money Online as a Students?
So where are all these great online jobs for college students? They are right in front of you, if you know where to look. The truth is that online jobs are easy to find, but sometimes finding the right online jobs can be a bit more challenging.
You need to make a decent wage if you are living in an industrialized nation and many of the jobs that can be done online have been diluted down to third world wages by all the people around the world bidding lower and lower to do these jobs.
Have no fear though, you can still make good money with online jobs, it just takes a bit more intelligence and creativity than in the past. Below are 3 ideas to get started making money online, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. I’ll share many more in the conclusion of this article.
Tutoring
This could fit very nicely for some students, especially if they are already doing offline tutoring. The biggest difference is that you will be working online rather than face to face and you get more flexibility from working online.
College students that are expert in one or two popular subject areas can make pretty decent money tutoring online. You can choose a window of time that you are always online or you can choose to be a floater and just come online when there are the largest number of students available to be tutored.
Subjects range from elementary math and science to calculus and physics and there are also tutors needed for English and writing skills as well as career planning help.
If this sounds interesting and easy to you, then find a tutoring program online and start the application process. Prospective tutors are required to pass a proficiency exam in their chosen subject area and then do a mock session with another experienced tutor. Once you are approved you often receive a mentor from the site. This is an experienced tutor who can help you get your feet wet and make suggestions for improvements. And if you do exceptionally well some sites even offer bonuses to the top tutors.
All things considered it is a decent job and while it can be demanding, it is rewarding as well. Your students will be a broad mix from elementary kids up to first year college students and even some military personnel thrown into the mix.
Depending on how much you want to work and what subject area you are tutoring it is realistic to expect to make $500-1500 a month, which isn’t too bad for a job you can do online whenever you like. One of the most popular online tutoring sites is Tutor.com.
Freelance Writing
Another good opportunity for online jobs for college students is freelance writing. There are scores of sites online and chances are you are pretty used to writing already from your college classes, especially if you are in a liberal arts program. The thing with freelance writing is that it takes some time to build up to a decent wage. The first few months are likely to be pretty slim in terms of earnings as you just get yourself known on the writing sites and start to build up a client list.
There are two (well actually three) different models for freelance writing sites.
One is an auction type model where you bid against others on jobs posted by clients. These types of sites usually pay extremely low wages for your writing due to the ability of some competition to offer extremely low bids. The real power here is in finding clients who like your writing and are willing to pay more for you to write for them on a regular basis. These clients can take time to find, which is why patience is advised.
The second type of site has several levels of writers and clients pay based on the experience and writing skills they are looking for. In this case you have to take a test when you apply at the freelance writing site and the editors will assign you a writing level, usually a number between 1 and 5. As you move up in levels better paying jobs become available to you as one of the best writers available on the site. If you are a good writer and move up to the top levels you can make decent money.
The third model isn’t really a website, but involves you attracting your own personal clients. This is the slowest route to freelance writing, but it is also the most lucrative. Freelance writing sites include elance.com, oDesk.com , Textbroker.com and iWriter.com although that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Blogging
Closely related to freelance writing, blogging is another one of the online jobs for college students.
The big difference between freelance writing and blogging is that with freelance writing you get paid when you write and its a once and done affair.
With blogging you won’t start to get paid until later, but it is an ongoing stream of income that continues even when you are not writing. In addition to the downside of having to wait to make money, there are also some additional skills you will need to learn such as search engine optimization and link building if you want to be really successful.
Blogging can be a difficult and demanding job, but the payoff is well worth it.
Continuing income without lifting a finger!
Many bloggers supplement their income by doing freelance writing for personal clients as well. If you love to research new topics and to write then this could be a job that even goes beyond college if you find yourself becoming successful.
Those are the three easiest ways to break into the world of online jobs for college students, but there are many other ways you can make money online.
There’s affiliate marketing, which can be quite profitable once you learn the ropes. In addition to the writing jobs available on the auction type sites you can also find jobs in many other disciplines from accounting and administrative work to programming and web design. Good graphic designers are always in demand on these sites as are those with skills in online marketing. No matter what your experiences and skills there’s a good chance that there is a fit for you somewhere on these sites so get out there and start your online career.